[Python-Dev] bytearray methods returning self...

[Dino Viehland]

I've been implementing bytearray for IronPython and I noticed a couple of spots where the non-mutating methods of bytearray return self.

In 2.6 but not in 3.0 RC2:

x = bytearray(b'abc')
y = x.replace(b'abc', b'bar', 0)
id(x) == id(y)

In 2.6 and in 3.0 RC2:

t = bytearray()
for i in range(256): t.append(i)

x = bytearray(b'')
y = x.translate(t)
id(x) == id(y)

Given that bytearray always returns a new instance on all of the other methods shouldn't it return a new instance here as well?  I'm just thinking someone could be planning on mutating the result here and not expecting their original bytearray to be mutated.